HILLSBOROUGH -- Five young Chapel Hill men have been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of a 20-year-old Chapel Hill man.

In addition, Gregory Lee Minton, 41, who runs Minton's Glenn Lennox BP in Chapel Hill, and his wife, Michelle Slade Minton, 37, who are the parents of one of the suspects, have been charged with accessory after the fact to murder. They were taken into custody Monday evening, according to Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall.

The men are accused of kidnapping and killing Joshua McCabe Bailey of 8821 Oconee Ct., Chapel Hill.

In addition to the Mintons, Chris Manley, 23, of 306 Estes Park Apartments, Apt. J-16, Carrboro, was also charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

TIn addition to the kidnapping and murder charges in Orange County, Minton, Maxwell, Johnson and a female, Sarah "Angel" Krombach, have been charged in Chatham County with first-degree kidnapping of another man that they also knew. They were being held on those charges under $1 million bond.

As Orange County Sheriff's investigators worked on the Bailey case, they developed information about the other kidnapping, and the Chatham County Sheriff's Office charged those four people for that kidnapping on Friday, Woodall said.

"Through the interviews of many subjects over the weeks, it was learned that Joshua McCabe Bailey had become the victim of a homicide," the press release said.

After further interviews that same night, Horne and the SBI agents found out that the body had been there but that it had been moved to another site in Chatham County. They went to the area and found a body in a grave near Jordan Lake.

The day before 16-year-old Brian Gregory Minton was picked up on first-degree rape charges, neighbors found a rifle and ammunition belonging to him in their yard, according to police.Minton, of 118 Marin Drive, was one of five high school-age boys arrested May 25 and charged with raping a 16-year-old girl in Southern Village last September.

Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall confirmed Tuesday that Minton was 18 and is the same person initially charged in a sexual assault case in 2007 in Chapel Hill's Southern Village. That case was dismissed, but Minton was given a suspended sentence for possessing a weapon of mass destruction (a shotgun) and put on four years' probation, according to state Department of Correction records.

This story has been in the Chapel Hill media for quite a while, due to the Silver Alert that had been issued for the victim, a developmentally disabled young man. There is more about the other activities of the accused in the Burlington paper.

HILLSBOROUGH -- Orange County sheriff's investigators think five young men abducted Joshua McCabe Bailey, 20, dug a shallow grave in the woods off Twisted Oak Drive in Chapel Hill and shot him in the head with a 9 mm pistol.

Bailey's family lost contact with him in July, and the sheriff issued a Silver Alert on Aug. 20 because Bailey suffered from dementia or cognitive impairment.

Authorities found his body Friday off Big Woods Road in Chatham County. The state medical examiner's office used dental records to identify his body Saturday.

Two days before the body was found, investigators examined the crime scene off Twisted Oak Drive. They found trash bags that reeked of decomposing flesh but no body. On Thursday, an informant told Orange County Investigator Tim Horne that the body had been moved to a burial site in Chatham County.

Search warrants also describe a second abduction in which the victim was kicked, punched and beaten in a Pittsboro auto-body shop late one night.

"The authorities learned of all these allegations in looking into Joshua Bailey's missing-person report," District Attorney Jim Woodall said. "All that came out of the same investigation."

Johnson, Maxwell and Minton, along with Sarah Krombach, 19, of Chapel Hill, are each charged with another count of first-degree kidnapping.

Those four are being held in the Chatham County jail on $1 million bail. Greene is being held without bail in Orange County until the suspects' first court appearances this morning. Lee was still at large Monday, as was Chris Manley, 23, of Carrboro, accused of being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Their son has a significant criminal record. He was placed on four years' probation in March after being convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, a sawed-off shotgun. He also pleaded guilty last year to cocaine possession with intent to sell or distribute and having a knife on school property.

... [much more detail about the Pittsboro activities in the rest of the article] ...

"...Baddour sentenced Minton to 16 to 20 months in prison, but suspended that sentence and put him on supervised probation for 48 months. He will spend the first nine months on intensive probation.

As part of the probation, Minton is not allowed to have any weapons, is subject to random drug searches and must remain medically compliant with his doctor's orders for his medication. If he fails to take his medication as prescribed, he could be in violation of his probation, Baddour said...."

It appears that Judge Baddour said all the right things to Minton [leaving aside the issue of whether this suspended parole was justified...]

BUT... it certainly does not sound like the follow-thru checkups and supervision of his suspended probation could have taken place.... Who is responsible for this? What do we know about this aspect of the court's action? Somebody has to be responsible for this horrible series of events!

So how did he get access to weapons? Who was checking on whether he was taking his medications? Going to his job? Attending classes? Who was checking to see whether the conditions of his intensive probation were being met, which they clearly were not! THAT is my concern ....

Sad all the way around. 1. That this array of people did not do something more productive with their lives. Perhaps due to lack of good parental guidance? Don't know. That's not always a guaranteed positive outcome.2. Once again a seeming falling through the cracks in the probation system in some of those involved.What a mess and a waste of life all the way around. "Proud parents of felon#" bumper sticker time? (Not seriously half way anyway ) Then in this case parent felons#

Chapel Hill police charged a Durham man with attempted first-degree murder for allegedly strangling his girlfriend over the weekend.Police said about 4:45 a.m., Brandon Hamilton Green, 24, of 2920 Chapel Hill Road, Apt. 63D, Durham, was at his girlfriend's house on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. when he strangled her until she thinks she lost consciousness

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that ONCE AGAIN, the legal system has FAILED MISERABLY!!! This kid should have been locked up YEARS ago!!! Obviously the parents could do nothing with him. Give somebody a chance is one thing. But look at ALL the SERIOUS charges against this nut case. Four years probation? With the probation system we have that means absolutely NOTHING!!!! ONCE AGAIN, someone with a LONG history in the legal system is allowed chance after chance after chance that they DO NOT DESERVE and another INNOCENT HUMAN BEING IS DEAD. I am disgusted!!!!!!!